“A BLUEPRINT FOR FAITH”

MATTHEW 7:21-27

21  "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven.

22  On that day many will say to me, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many deeds of power in your name?'

23  Then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; go away from me, you evildoers.'

24  "Everyone then who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock.

25  The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on rock.

26  And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not act on them will be like a foolish man who built his house on sand.

27  The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell--and great was its fall!"

Not necessarily.

Billy Sunday, the traveling evangelist from the 1930’s once said that, “Walking into a church doesn’t make you a Christian anymore than walking into a garage makes you a wheelbarrow.”

That’s similar to something Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount. It’s right there in the first verse. “Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven…”

As far as Jesus was concerned just because you put a few coins in the collection plate and say your prayers that doesn’t necessarily mean you a Christian.  The fact that you’re sitting there in the pew this morning doesn’t necessarily mean you’re a Christian.  The fact that I’m standing here in this pulpit with an R-E-V in front of my name doesn’t necessarily mean I’m a Christian.

The true test comes when life isn’t easy.  That’s when you can tell if a person is really serious about following Jesus.  That’s when you can tell if a person really is a Christian. That’s why Jesus ended the Sermon on the Mount with the Parable of the Wise and Foolish Builders.

It’s one of the simpler parables that he told.  In order to really appreciate the parable though, you have to keep the geography of the Middle East in mind.  One thing we know about that part of the world is that there are mountains. It’s also very dry most of the time.  Because of that there aren’t any trees or grass on those mountains.  So, when it does rain the water simply cascades down the rocky sides of those mountains.  In no time at all a dry and dusty valley can be turned into a raging river.

Despite that ever present danger the foolish builder laid the foundation for his house on the soft and shifting sands.  So, when the rains came the wind and the water and the waves beat against the house and it came crashing down.  “And great,” Jesus said, “was the fall of that house.”   The wise builder on the other hand laid the foundation for his house on rock that was solid and stable.  So when the rains came his house didn’t budge.

Then there are those situations where the shoe is on the other foot.  Instead of being the one who’s been treated unfairly, you’re the one who’s done something wrong.  What do you do then?  Do you confess your sins and apologize?  Or do you remind yourself that what you didn’t isn’t all that bad when you look at a lot of the things other people are doing these days.  Recently, I came across an article that suggested that we’ve gone from being a Charlie Brown society to a Bart Simpson society.  If you think about it a little it makes sense.  When Charlie Brown did something wrong he felt regret and remorse.  When Bart Simpson does something wrong he laughs about it and enjoys the fact that he got the best of someone.

If you really want to know if a person is serious about following Jesus you look at what the person does when life isn’t easy.   Maybe you’re facing one of those tests right now.

Sometimes the test comes when you see someone who really needs your help.  All of a sudden you have to make a decision.  Do you help the person even if it means you have to make a few sacrifices?  Or do you tell yourself that someone else can probably help the person better than you can?  That way of thinking can be seen in a quote that may be familiar to some of you.  It goes like this:

Once upon a time there was an important job that needed to be done.  Everybody was sure that Somebody would do it.  Anybody could have done it, but Nobody did it.  Well, Somebody got angry about that because it was Everybody’s job.  Everybody thought that Anybody could do it, but Nobody realized that Everybody wouldn’t do it. So, it ended up that Everybody blamed Somebody when Nobody did what Anybody could have done.

Here’s another one of those tests for you. When you see something that isn’t right do you speak up even though it might make a lot of people angry?  Or do you tell yourself that it’s none of your business and it’s probably best not to rock the boat?  Many years ago, businessman Samuel Colgate found himself faced with one of those situations.  It happened in his church as a matter of fact. One day the pastor invited those who wished to turn their lives over to Christ and be forgiven to come forward.  One of the first to walk down the aisle and kneel before the altar was a woman who was known to be a prostitute.  People were shocked.  Finally, after a few moments of awkward silence Samuel Colgate stood up and said, “I guess we blundered when we prayed that the Lord would save sinners.  We forgot to specify what kind of sinners.  We’d better ask him to forgive us for this oversight.  The Holy Spirit has touched this woman and made her truly repentant, but the Lord apparently doesn’t understand that she’s not the type we want him to rescue.  We’d better spell it out for him just which sinners we had in mind.”

It takes a lot of fortitude to get up and say something like that.  That only happens when your faith has been built on rock that’s solid and sturdy. Could you do something like that?  I bet you could.  All you have to do is remember a very simple but important truth.  The next time you find yourself faced with one of those tests just remember, God loves you more than you can imagine and you have been created in God’s own image.  What that means is you have the ability to love even when it hurts.  You have the ability to love even when it’s hard.  You have the ability to love even when the situation seems to be hopeless.

You have the ability to love the same way a woman did when her heart was full of fear and anger and despair.  At the time her husband was off fighting for freedom in a country halfway around the world.  In one of his letters the husband told her about the friendships he had made with seven other men in his platoon.  “I am so grateful,” he wrote, “because in this isolated and barren land a person could easily be driven to despair.”  That made a deep impression on the wife.  So, when her husband’s next birthday rolled around she sent him a large package. Inside that large package the husband found not one gift, but eight gifts; one for him and one for each of his seven friends. With his eyes a little misty the husband smiled and simply said, “That’s my wife for you!”

When you find yourself in a situation that really tests your faith just remember that you are loved and you have been created in the image of that God who loves you.  When you do that you’ll find yourself standing on the rock that’s solid and sturdy. You’ll also have the confidence of knowing that when everything is said and done there will be enough evidence to convict you of being a Christian.  Amen.

Rev. Dr. Richard A. Hughes

May 29, 2005